Designing an Ecological Experience: Lessons and Recommendations for the Helmcken/Comox Greenway

Author:

O'Neill, Maureen D.

Issue Date:

2008-04-23

Abstract:

This project aims to operationalize a more holistic definition
of the urban greenway using principles and strategies for
greenway design from urban design and landscape architecture
literature. The theories of placemaking, great streets, and
ecoliteracy through ecological design are reviewed. A selection
of best practices demonstrates lessons for greenway design and
yield a set of strategies for application to distinctive conditions
in Vancouver. In combination with a comprehensive urban
analysis of the study area, the strategies guide a set of conceptual
designs for the Helmcken/Comox section of the Central Valley
Greenway in Vancouver.
The urban greenway is defined as a naturalized alternative
transportation route for environmental education and connection
to ecological, recreational, historical, and cultural amenities. It
is argued that urban greenways have the potential for engaging
citizens and visitors in a grand urban ecological connoisseurship
through their function, location, and design. Ten principles
for greenway design address three key urban design theories:
Placemaking, Great Streets, and Ecoliteracy through Ecological
Design. A series of strategies, developed from eight reference
cases, aim to put the principles into practice.
The principles and strategies are tested on two sites along
the Helmcken/Comox corridor in Downtown Vancouver, BC.
This corridor is the proposed extension of the Central Valley
Greenway, a regional route currently being designed. An urban
analysis of the proposed route illustrates some of the constraints
and opportunities to design. The resulting design alternatives
proposed in this report demonstrate that the principles and
strategies can be applied to create a great greenway that is
safe, functional, and imageable. Further, the designs illustrate
that there is incredible variety in application: bike boulevards,
community gardens, traffic calming, and street realignment are
some of the possibilities.
Recommendations to TransLink and the City of Vancouver
suggest that there is an opportunity to pioneer a greenway
design that challenges the status quo. It is recommended that
the planning agencies develop a phasing plan that prioritizes
pedestrians and cyclists in the short-term and creates a greenway
that can foster knowledge, meaning, and value of the urban
landscape over the long-term. The Helmcken/Comox Greenway
can connect neighbourhoods, workplaces, Stanley Park, and the
Central Valley Greenway in a meaningful and memorable way,
while providing a means for healthy exercise and contributing to
mode shift.